Animal Welfare Professionals

My one year old male cat (fostered since before birth) developed a weepy eye 3 days ago with white goopy/sticky drainage that turns black and crusty. I can’t get into the vet for another 5 days due to COVID-19 business restrictions at my vet. My cat is winking/blinking, sleeping more and eating less. Since he was born he’s suffered from a wet cough periodically- every couple of weeks, he will develop this cough/wheeze and cough/hack a handful of times a day for a couple days then it goes away. He’s been seen by 4 vets, had multiple rounds of dewormer, antibiotics, steroids and I’ve never received answers. Was told to keep an eye on it and he might outgrow it. Coupled with his new development of eye infection (I think) I’m wondering if anyone has ideas on what this might be? Chronic feline herpes? asthma? Allergies? Eye and lung are likely unrelated? Most importantly, what can I do to provide him relief until he’s seen by the vet on Monday?

As an amateur foster cat caregiver, I treat the symptoms like a goopy eye, but aggressively.  For a weepy eye like that, it can easily and quickly end up with a secondary bacterial infection that then progresses to an enuncleation being needed.  I check the eyes every 2-4hrs minimum with a weepy eye like that, hold a warm water washcloth over the eye until the gunky stuff loosens, and gently wipe away all gunk.  The kitties usually hate that process, but sometimes it saves the eye.  Another thing I might suggest is trying over the counter sterile saline drops intended for eyes (maybe once a day), if you have them available at your local pharmacy.  They may do nothing, but they shouldn't hurt any.  If you do it often enough, sometimes it will keep the eyegoop from getting black and crusty (and therefore much harder and more likely to damage the eye as you work to get it off).  Another thing that can happen either due to or secondary to the weepy eye is conjunctivits.  A red painful eye is usually a good indication of conjunctivitis.  Watch for that as it.  Cough and lung stuff is often helped by warm humidification.  A humidifier is nice, but, little things, like locking your cat in the bathroom while you have a long hot shower or putting Eucalyptus menthol Vaseline on your chest and having the cat cuddle up to you to get it to breath it in to try and clear the lungs (don't put it directly on the cat,), are a few ideas from the basic front.  Hope this helps.

Hi Waltze, I am no expert at all.  But my first thought was allergies, maybe.  Then I though maybe a warm washcloth over kitties eyes would help him to feel better?  So I googled it and found this:  Read the first one.   https://www.bing.com/search?q=how+to+help+cat+with+weepy+eye+and+coughing&form=WNSGPH&qs=SW&cvid=6b3c68ebcffe4055b884dcb70acc6675&pq=how+to+help+cat+with+weepy+eye+and+coughing&cc=US&setlang=en-US&PC=HCTS&nclid=A61ADCE4E40B5EB8C874498024905647&ts=1587652246189&wsso=Moderate

I found this on Web MD about watery eyes in cats.  https://pets.webmd.com/cats/causes-of-feline-watery-eyes#1

Is there a vet that you know of in your area that has several vets at the same animal hospital?  Years ago we were fortunate enough to have a vet that had four vets ranging from young, right out of school and up to date on the latest and greatest to the senior vet (owner) with years of experience behind him, and two vets in between.  I always felt better knowing there was a wide range of knowledge for difficult situations.  And that wealth of knowledge did come in handy more than once through the years.

I hope this helps and wish you and your cat the best.  Please let us know how they can help.

Some things you can try is adding warm water to wet food to help entice an appetite.  Another thing you can do is take kitty in the bath room and turn on the shower and make the bathroom nice and steamy, this can help break up any mucus and help breathing.  It's probably URI, (upper respiratory infection).  It could be viral, you could try Virayls, its a supplement that has enzymes that help the immune system.  Also you can place a warm wash cloth to kitties eye to help clean it out and offer relief.  If all else fails you may just needs some eye drops.